The Lace Works

Here are some pictures of the lace work Mum is exhibiting at the VAST Exhibition in Tapawera at Shedwood Hall. It runs until the 1st February 2010.

The best crafter I've ever met

I recently made my mum some business cards for an upcoming exhibition she is participating in. She will be exhibiting some of her pieces of hand-made lace. Lacemaking is one of the more recent acquisitions to her crafting reportoire, which includes knitting and spinning among many other things. Since then she has been learning various different techniques, so when I got married, I asked her to make a piece of lace for my dress. I couldn't find any patterns that would work for a dress, so she found a book with instructions on how to design lace patterns. I came up with a design, drew it all out in illustrator, and mum made the piece of lace. It looked beautiful, and I now have a one-of-a-kind wedding dress that will be treasured for years to come.

Mum has many other crafting skills, quite a few of which she taught me when I was young. She showed me how to knit, sew, spin, weave and crochet. I still have a collection of soft toys and other things I've made. I've have slowly been picking these skills back up again over the last few years, and am enjoying the renaissance craft is having. It's nice to have learnt all these things from my mum, rather than a book. The skills have gone from generation to generation without missing a step.

If you are in the Nelson area in the next week or two, pop over to Tapawera and have a look at the annual VAST Art Exhibition. It's on from January 23 until February 1 at the Shedwood Hall, Main Road, Tapawera.

Summer break and the New Year

This post is probably a bit late to be a proper 'Happy New Year Post', but hey, better late than never! I had a lovely break over Christmas. We went up to Nelson to catch up with family, then we went camping, and we took a day trip over to Golden Bay. We took the long and winding gravel road to Totoranui, as I had never been there before. I decided that next time I visit I might just take the water taxi from Kaiteriteri!

We stopped at Ligar Bay and had a look, as I had stayed here in a school trip, and remembered there was a nice beach. I wasn't disappointed, and decided it would be a great place for a bach. Unfortunately we didn't win that lotto draw!

I don't normally do New Year resolutions per se, but usually have something I'd like to achieve. This year I'd like to be a bit more organised – who doesn't! I have had a cleanout and sold some old things I no longer use on trademe. The extra space may be shortlived as I found it's a great source of yarn to add to my stash... There's some rather pretty yarn on my watchlist right now.

I'm hoping 2010 will be better than 2009. I didn't have a terrible year, but there is always room for improvement, and now that I have (hopefully) discovered the source of the health issues I was having last year, I think things can only get better. In a couple of months I will know for sure and will be able to move on, with or without gluten as part of my life.